It is known to fabricate concrete stones having a top molded surface that imitates a real stone. Such is done by casting the stone in a mold with dry-cast concrete having a proper amount of humidity and compressed therein by a tamper head of the mold. The tamper head is provided with a textured outer surface resembling a real stone and this is impressed in the top surface of the casted stone as the tamper head applies pressure onto the concrete contained in the mold. The bottom end of the mold is formed by a steel production plate and after casting the stone the mold side walls are lifted about the tamper head and the tamper head is also withdrawn to clear the casted stone. The production plate, with the casted stones, is then brought to a curing station by conveying the production plate to the curing station. The casted stones can also be roughened after they have cured to give it an “aged” look.
It is also known to fabricate casted stones, particularly for the construction of retaining walls and wherein one face of the stone has a rough face consisting of exposed aggregate. This process involves the casting of double stones and after curing these stones they are split along a splitting groove casted on the stone whereby to provide an exposed aggregate surface along the split side walls. This process requires additional machinery and handling of the production plate whereby each double stone can be split and preferably several such stones can be split in one operation. This results in some waste as often the stone will break in an irregular fashion along the split grooves. Accordingly this process is labour-extensive and expensive as it requires machinery, excess floor space and there is waste of material.
Heretofore it has not been possible to cast concrete stones having opposed molded textured surfaces due to the fact that the concrete sticks to the bottom support wall on which the stones are casted, such as the steel production plate. The problem resides in that it is not possible to lift the stones off the production plate as the concrete sticks to it. Accordingly, the freshly casted stones are left there in an undisturbed manner whereby to be cured and then removed from the plate after curing. It has not been possible to cast on a patterned textured bottom support surface as the concrete would stick, at least in part, to the textured surface.
Manufacturers of casted concrete stone also need to carry large inventories of stones as there are stones of different sizes produced for different uses and also these stones need to be manufactured of different colors or tones to resemble different types of real stones. These large inventories also require large storage areas and this adds to the cost. Further, such large inventories are necessary to ensure prompt delivery to customers. Casted concrete stones are also popular for use as exterior walls of buildings as they closely resemble real stone and are easy to install due to the fact that their side surfaces are flat-like bricks, making the installation easier, faster and less costly as compared to real stones which requires expert masons for working the stone to shape and for installation.